Pages

Thursday, 10 February 2011

Fantastic Fiction - first class

Well, that was fun. Even if was a bit nerve racking to walk into a room full of strangers who are already welded into a unit, but they were warm and interesting and I learned a lot from them. The topic was looking at world building in fantasy, even if the only thing that isn't 'real' about your world is one tiny detail. We looked at Incarceron by Catherine Fisher who managed to create two fantasy world in just one book. There's areview here, by The Bookbag.

No wonder so many fantasy books are so long. You have to create the rules for your world and then convince your reader of those to make the story credible. The tutor set us homework, a scene that introduces a character and the world/rules of a fantasy story. Tall order in just 800 words, and the thing is to be workshopped next week so we have to get on and do it over the weekend. So off to a flying start. It's good to be working on something again, there was this breathing space between the assignments going in and the modules starting that felt like a vacuum, my imagination seemed to go on holiday for ten days (I imagine it went skiing with son, no. 1 because he has written loads since he got back.) Anyway, it's back, and it's flying. The session gave me an interesting idea for the book which I'm playing with. Not to mention some ideas for the poetry and the course blog.

Meanwhile, the EMA for my Open University course needs some consideration, and to avoid a complete workload pile-up in May I'm getting on with the last one of those assignments now. It's difficult to switch gears between the courses, it's so much easier when they are in the same area like the poetry.

The Secrets of Life and Death

The Secrets of Blood and Bone

The Secrets of Time and Fate

I Will Find You

A Shroud of Leaves

Saving Noah

About Me

My name is Rebecca Alexander, I am a novelist and poet living in North Devon. I have completed an MA in Creative and Critical Writing at the University of Winchester. My dissertation novel 'The Secrets of Life and Death' was a runner up in the Mslexia 2011 novel writing competition. Another novel, 'A Baby's Bones' came second in the Yeovil novel competition, 2012. I have completed A215 and A363 with the Open University. I write novels with a mystery or supernatural theme and also enjoy writing poetry. I home educated my children, and live in a Georgian house near a river. I have too many cats. This blog is for the everyday stresses and successes of writing. My agent is Jane Willis of United Agents. The Secrets of Life and Death was published by Del Rey UK (part of Random House/Ebury) on October 2013 and the sequel The Secrets of Blood and Bone came out in the UK in October 2014. The third book in the trilogy will be out in 2016. I am presently writing another series, about archaeological puzzles.

Copyrights reserved

Please notice that unless specified otherwise the copyright of all the articles in this blog is belongs to the author of this blog, Rebecca Alexander. Anyone who wishes to post them on other websites, or for any form of publication, please contact the author and get permission first.